Holder for electroplating



No. 625,489. Patented May 29 1999. w. Y. BUCK.

HOLDER FOB ELEGTROPLATING.

{Application filed Nov. 4, 1898.)

(N0 Model.)

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F NITED STATES PATENT OFFIC WILLIAM Y. BUCK, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT.

HOLDER FOR ELECTROPLATING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 625,489, dated May 23, 1899.

Application filed November 4, 1898. Serial No. 695,452- (No model.)

To all whom, it 11mg concern).-

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM Y. BUCK, of Bristol, Hartford county, Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Holders for Electroplating, which improvements are described in the following specification and are illustrated by the accompanyin g drawings.

In a general sense this invention relates to apparatus for holding work during the process of electroplating. In particular it relates to frames that are used in that process to hold knives and other articles which, like them, are provided with tangs for insertion in haudles. Before this invention such frames usually included a horizontal bar adapted to be hung in a bath and provided with vertical perforations for the tangs of the articles under treatment. In frames so constructed the blades, standing in line in irregular positions, lean toward or apart from each other in an indeterminate manner. Consequently the plating is deposited unequally upon different parts of the blade, and visible lines are frequently produced where blades have rested near each other or in partial contact. WVhen this occurs, the plated article has to be stripped and subjected again to the successive steps of preparation and plating. With the use of the best frames heretofore existing it is necessary to treat in this manner a considerable percentage of all the work done. To prevent this inconvenience and the consequent expense is one of the objects of the present invention.

Again, in the old frames constructed as described the blades stand in an average vertical position of parallelism and are just as near together at one end as at the other. Under such circumstances the deposit (which is naturally thickest upon that part of each blade which is in the lowest and densest part of the bath) becomes gradually thinner as the distance from the point of support in the frame increases. It is a-further object of the invention systematically to obviate this inequality of deposit by uniformly increasing the separation of the adjacent blades in proportion to the distance above the bar of the holder.

Again, as it is the tendency of electroplating solutions to deposit most heavily upon those parts of the work which are surrounded by a large and unobstructed mass of such so lution and to make their lightestdeposit upon those parts which are, so to speak, shadowed by other parts of the work,it is a further object of my invention to equalize the deposit yet further and to increase the thickness of the deposit upon those parts of the work which are farthest removed from the holder-bar by increasing the distance between the last-mentioned parts.

Again, in the old frames it is necessary that the vertical holes in which the tangs of the work are inserted should be located at a cer= tain considerable distance from each other in the bar of the holder in order to prevent the blades from occasionally resting in contact with each other near their free ends. To obviate this necessity, and by so doing to permit the blades to be inserted nearer together, is a further object of the invention.

Again, in the old frames for holding work of this kind each of the blades when in its normal erect position, stands with its bolster in full contact with the holder-bar. Hence the deposit upon the under side of the bolster is irregular and imperfect. To obviate this im perfection is a yet further object of the invention.

These several specified objects of myiinvention, which are collectively of great im= portance in the manufacture of plated articles of the specified class, I accomplish by the single and simple device of using as part of my improved holder a horizontal bar that is perforated obliquely by a number of holes inclined in opposite directions from the V61 tical and arranged alternatively in respect of their inclination, as will hereinafter be more particularly described.

The best manner in which I have c0ntem= plated applying the principles of my invention is shown in the drawings by which the invention is illustrated.

Figure l is a side view of a holder which is constructed in accordance with thoseprinciples. In this figure two knives are represented in position in the holder. Fig. 2 is an edge view of the same holder with knives therein, all in position in an electroplating= ductive material and is preferably rectangu lar in cross-section. It is perforated by a number of holes arranged in line and located at a convenient distance apart, so that the pieces,

of work may be separated from each other. With reference to a vertical plane through the longitudinal axisof bar 1 holes 2 and 3,- which alternate with each other, are equally inclined in opposite directions, forming with each other an angle preferably of fifty de-' These holes are of unigrees, more or less. form size, large enough to admit conveniently the'tan gs of the'workand to hold them loosely in the positions indicated in Figs. 1 and 2. Bar 1 is provided with an electrically-conductive wire handle 4:, which is rigidly united therewith and has a bend 5, by which the de-' vice, as a movable conducting-hanger, maybe suspended in the usual manner from a conductive rod or bar 19, which represents the face of the holder-bar.

negative pole of the circuit.

In Fig. 2 the numerals 13 denote the side walls of a vat containing the plating sol ution' 14, in which the work is suspended. The

anodes 15, being plates of silver or other: metal, are submerged in the same solution on opposite sides of the work, being sus-? pended by hooks 16, which are in electrical contact with the copper strap 17, represent-f iugthe positive pole of the circuit.

The work, which is represented in Figs. 1' and 2 by the knives 6 and 7, is placed in the holder by insertingthe tangs 10 and 11 in the several inclined holes 2 and 3 and by permitting thebolsters 8 and 9. to descend tillstopped;

by contact with the upper face of bar 1. When the work is so placed in the holder, those pieces which are placed in holes 2 and 3., respectively, assume positions of inclination in all these conditions remain undisturbed when the holder is agitated in the bath or if momentarily disturbed are immediately restored by the tendency of the work to return by its own weight to the positions indicated.

The agitation of the work in the bath, sometimes called the vat motion, is effected in the usual manner by swinging the holder continually from side to side during the progress of the plating and prevents all appreciable inequality of deposit on opposite sides of the work.

By means of this invention, therefore, the pieces of work, though set near each other in the holder-bar, are so held apart as never to rest in contact with each other. They are most separated from each other in those parts which are required by electrical considerations to have the greatest separation and are least separated in respect ofthose parts which require the least separation, while the inter-- mediate parts of the same are mutually separated by corresponding intermediate distances. At the same time the bolsters are never permitted to rest flat against the upper Consequently the blades proper are plated uniformly from end to end and areleft free from all lines and objectionable markings,while. the bolsters, even on the side next the holder-bar, are plated as completely as can bedesired.

Such being the construction and operation of my improved holder forelectroplating, I claim as my in'vention In a holder for electroplating, a bar of conductive material, perforated from top to bottom, at right angles with its longitudinal axis, byanumber of holes, which are arranged from end to end of the bar at a convenient distance apart, and are alternately inclined in opposite directions from the vertical and from each other, in combination with a conductive handle, which is rigidly united'with said bar, and is adapted to hold the same suspendedin bath in a horizontal position, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name in the presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM Y. BUCK.

\Vitnesses:

WILLARD EDDY, CHARLES DENISON. 

